Three Weeks. Three Continents.: The Sea of Galilee

Shalom and welcome to Israel! Hopefully you all enjoyed Nate's post on Tel Aviv - the only thing I saw there was our hotel room (which was very nice.) On the plus side, it also meant that we spent practically nothing - there was even a free "light dinner" buffet at the hotel. Apparently I am the spender in our duo.

We both had a sense as we left France that the "real" adventure was about to begin. We know so little of the language and can't even read the Hebrew letters. Luckily, most signs are in Hebrew, Arabic and English and nearly everyone speaks English. We're on a very loose itinerary here, defined only by the hotel reservations we have. We are travelling more or less clockwise around the country, making lots of stops on the our way between cities where we're staying. We have a trusty little Chevy sedan we've named Sarah and a GPS named Rebecca that we would be lost (pun intended) without. So far, so good!

(a goofy photo of the map in our guide book for some context.)

Last night we arrived in Tiberias which is a city on the Sea of Galilee. Turns out the "Sea" of Galilee is actually the "Lake" of Galilee and it sits 700 feet below sea level, while some of the surrounding land is up to 70 feet above sea level. The landscape is hard to describe - hilly, with what looks like flowing wheat low to the ground, but lots of tree greens (olive, cypress), and beautiful flowering trees and vines everywhere. The colors are gorgeous - deep pinks of all shades, with yellow and orange mixed in. The weather today was a bit odd. It was around 100 degrees out, humid (so much for the dry heat!), and very, very hazy. At points in the day, you couldn't even see across the lake, and it's not that big.

So, after an Israeli breakfast (which means a little of everything you can think of!) we hopped in the car and set off for Ginosar which today is a kibbutz but could be the ancient city of Gennesaret which is a place the Bible mentions Jesus being in once. Today, it's well-known for a first century fishing boat that was found buried in its shores in 1986. Very incredible.

Next it was on to Tabgha, site of two churches. One commemorates the Primacy of St. Peter. It's said that in the area of the church was where Jesus appeared after he rose from the dead and asked Peter three times "Do you love me?" Peter answered "Lord, you know I do" three times, some say as atonement for denying Jesus three times before his death. The site had a pretty little pebble beach on the lake and a small church. We have from Nick a very handy little print out with Bible passages organized by site in Israel (thanks, Nick!) so that was coming in handy already.

Next we walked to the church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes. This was a slightly bigger church with a pretty open courtyard/cloister in front with a pond. The church was rebuilt several times, the last time in the 1900s on the foundations of the original church and unearthed some original mosaics on the floor. Again, it was nice to sit quietly and read the accompanying Bible passage

On to Caperaum, which was the center of Jesus's ministry. The site was a large excavation of the ancient town, mostly foundations including what is traditionally believed to be St. Peter's house where Jesus stayed. There are also ruins of the town synogogue but dating from a few centuries after Jesus. (Still, it was probably built over the synogogue of Jesus' time.) This place was the most moving for me. The entire sight was a bit raised over the Sea and it was a little less foggy, so the views were very nice. Maybe it was that you could sense what the little town might have been like and imagine people having a real life there. There is a modern (in time and in architectural style) church cantilevering over the site of Peter's house (sort of strange, but we'll go with it) where we sat for awhile and did our reading. Did I mention it was 100 degrees and humid?

Our last stop of the day was at the Mount of the Beatitudes. It's pretty high up and I'm sure the views are usually amazing, but unfortunately it looked like we were in a cloud with all the haze. Big time bummer. Anyway, the little church was beautiful with an intense Italian nun on guard ("Cover your shoulders!" "No shorts!" "No video!") You can definitely see the Byzantine/Eastern influences in the Christian architecture here - this dome was completely covered in a mosaic of gold tiles with a little bit of blue. Nate and I recently saw the show "Godspell" so it was fun reading Matthew's gospel (which the show is based on) for the Sermon on the Mount.